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Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Sunday Morning at Strictly Pancakes, Singapore

People would tease me that I have an attention span of a goldfish or that my memory is sometimes as bad as Dory's in Finding Nemo. Tell me your name today and there's a chance that I might be calling you something else tomorrow. My former colleague Jamie can attest to this, I was calling her Joyce for about a month or two! I hate it, actually. How I wish I have a better memory! Oh well...

The ironies in life. As bad as my memory is at present, ask me anything about my childhood and I can give you a blow-by-blow account of it. My class section names from Kinder to High School, my alma mater hymm, who sat beside me on my first day in college and even the trips that my family has made. There's also one thing that I will never forget -- the first friend that I've made in my life.

Meet Angela or Gelato (Gelats) as I love to call her. We met on our first day in nursery and somehow we remained friends 28 years after. After attending nursery together, we moved on to the same BIG school where we got to see each other, despite hanging out in different groups, up until our senior year in high school. Even as we moved on to our respective universities, technology allowed us to still keep in touch with one another.

At present, both Gelats and I are residing outside Manila. She lives in a country north of the Philippines while I'm here at the Lion City. When I found out that she's here for a quick weekend visit and the only available time that she had was for brunch, I quickly made plans to meet up with her. I haven't seen her for years and I was so excited to finally be able to catch up with her.

I'm lucky that Singapore is brimming with so many brunch places thus the challenge lies in choosing a good one. After reading a handful of food blogs, I decided to make reservations at Strictly Pancakes. It was also perfect timing that I was craving for pancakes that time. You might wonder if a reservation was really necessary given we're going there on a Sunday morning, let me tell you that I'm so glad I made that call as the restaurant was filled that day and luckily, we had our table for four waiting for us despite the busy brunch crowd.

The menu is pretty straightforward. First you choose how many pancakes you want to have -- 2? 3? or 4? You can also opt to get chocolate pancakes for an addition $1 charge. Next, you choose the butter that will go with your pancakes -- Salted? Unsalted? Garlic & Herb? Rum & Raisin? Lastly, the best part of all -- you choose the savoury items to accompany your pancakes.

Before I show you what we got that morning, let me talk about the butter. Yes, Strictly Pancakes means serious pancake business that they don't only have one but four interesting butter flavours. Of course, I went for the Garlic & Herb as I'm such a fan of sweet-salty combinations. This came with a glass of maple syrup. My only complain about the butter is that it probably came straight from the chiller as it was crumbly and hard. It was quite challenging to spread this on to our pancakes as it came out in tiny hard chunks. Wish it was creamy and soft for the butter to glide on top of our stack of pancakes.

On to our brunch, Paul went for the Short (2 pcs) stack of pancakes with Bacon and Scrambled Eggs (S$10.50). He said the bacon wasn't as crispy as he was hoping it to be but the pancakes were soft and fluffy. He was happy with his choice and I'm really glad he was as he normally wouldn't agree to ordering any breakfast meal worth more than S$5! This one obviously went way beyond his normal breakfast budget. At least he feels that it was worth it. *phew*
As for me, I couldn't really decide what to get until I saw the Weekend Breakfast menu. I just love how breakfast/brunch here in Singapore goes on until 2PM! This allows us to have breakfast food for lunch!

Since I love mushrooms and eggs, I went for the Eggs-A-Way (S$13). This is quite similar to Paul's pancake platter only mine was served with a dish of black pepper mushroom instead of bacon. For me, the pancakes were indeed delicious. It was fluffy and light, just the way a perfect pancake should be. I spread butter on one stack and left the other one unadulterated. It was really good! I love the thick, pillowy soft pancakes!
The mushrooms were also yummy but somehow I can't help but steal a glance at Paul's bacon which was looking oh-so-yummy. Oh well... lesser calories, lesser pain (in the gym). Haha!

Initially, I thought getting the Weekend Breakfast was a smart choice since each set comes with coffee already. I got a Cafe Latte with my Eggs-A-Way platter and was very disappointed. The coffee was weak and somehow diluted and no amount of sugar could help perk up the taste. I took a few sips and left it there on the table. I should have went for the DIY pancake platter and a glass of cold OJ instead.

When at Strictly Pancakes, do stick to the pancakes. I've learned my lesson which is to stay away from the special and pricey platters and to just have my DIY pancake combination which wouldn't cost as much. Next time, I'm trying the chocolate pancakes as it seems to be a popular choice too.

The best part about our brunch was being able to bond with my friend Gelats and her boyfriend Jay. Hope we can see each other again which means either them coming over again or us, visiting them. Any which way sounds FUN!

Strictly Pancakes is located at 44A Prinsep street, Singapore 188674. Call them at +65 6333-4202. To get there: take the MRT and alight at the Dhoby Ghout station. Walk towards Prinsep street. It's in one of those yellow shophouses a little past the Singapore School of the Arts.

2 comments:

I've been reading your blog for quite some time now and I thoroughly enjoy it; however, your penchant for fatty food worries me. I know anything with fat is delicious, but shouldn't you be worried about the effects it has on your health?

"I can't help but steal a glance at Paul's bacon which was looking oh-so-yummy. Oh well... lesser calories, lesser pain (in the gym)."This really made me think. Calories? Shouldn't you be thinking about cholesterol? I do not want to sound like a hater because I am not, but from the pictures I have seen of you, you need to be careful.

Thank you very much for reading my blog. It really means a lot to me :) Also, I appreciate the concern that you have with regards to my food intake and general health. Just want to assure you that I do keep a close watch on my health most especially when it comes to cholesterol, sodium and sugar intake. As what I've written above, all I did was to glance/stare at Paul's bacon but stuck loyal to my mushrooms. :) You got to admit that a piece of bacon can be very tempting and would definitely make you look longingly at it. But that was it.. I "ate" with my eyes.

Other than that, my daily diet includes lots of fruits and veggies, moderate amount of protein and just some carbs. We also do get to walk a lot since we commute here in Singapore and compared to our lives in Manila, Paul and I normally would just eat out during the weekends as this is our only chance to unwind.

Nonetheless, I do agree that we always have to keep a close watch on what we eat and its effect to our body. As a food blogger, I will do my part in sharing healthy finds to help everyone as well.